ISO 27001 for SaaS Companies: What It Takes to Become Certified

>ISO 27001 for SaaS Companies: What It Takes to Become Certified

ISO 27001 for SaaS Companies: What It Takes to Become Certified

Learn what ISO 27001 certification means for SaaS companies, what it takes to achieve certification, and how a structured information security management system can strengthen security and customer trust.

ISO 27001 for SaaS Companies: What It Takes to Become Certified

When a potential business customer in Germany, India or Singapore asks, “Are you ISO 27001 certified?”

Simply saying “we take security seriously” is no longer sufficient.

Evidence that your company has a structured, repeatable way to identify information security risks, manage them and keep improving. and getting them involves considerably more than downloading an ISO 27001 PDF, writing a few policies and showing up for an audit. That is where many SaaS founders underestimate the work

ISO 27001 reviews your infrastructure, software development, access controls, vendors, employees, incident response and even how leadership manages security risk. The goal is not just to make your company look good on paper; it is to create an information security management system that really works in the world if, unfortunately, the time ever comes.

So, what is ISO 27001 exactly? What does your SaaS company need to do to get an ISO 27001 certification?

Let’s take a look.

So, What Is ISO 27001?

ISO IEC 27001:2022, often called ISO 27001, is a standard for creating an Information Security Management System (ISMS). It is jointly published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). That is why you might see both names interchangeably, ISO 27001 and ISO IEC 27001, in vendor documents, RFPs and buying lists.

In plain English, an ISMS is the system your company uses to figure out:

What data and records do we have?
What problems could happen?
What steps do we take to handle those risks?
How can we show our controls are actually working?
How do we keep improving as time goes on?

ISO 27001 Is Especially Important for SaaS Firms

SaaS firms often store customer information, source code, authentication details, employee details, intellectual property, and business information in cloud environments and third-party software applications. That is why clients ask for a standard framework to ensure that the data provided is safe from any sort of breach because the proper controls are in place.

ISO 27001 is meant to assist you in managing all the risks associated with the data while ensuring its confidentiality, integrity, and accessibility.

What Does the Auditor Check While Certifying for ISO 27001?

The core requirements of ISO/IEC 27001 certification sit in Clauses 4-10. This is the first layer.

Context of the Organization (Clause 4)

Determining the ISMS scope: identifying what products, environment, and locations are actually included in scope for certification

Leadership (Clause 5)

ISMS information security policy statement, including ownership and management commitment (not a policy statement in a PDF that is never read)

Planning (Clause 6)

Identifying and assessing risks, planning how said risks should be handled and also setting information security objectives in place.

Support (Clause 7)

Supplying the necessary resources, competence, awareness, communication and documented information for establishing and maintaining the ISMS.

Operations (Clause 8)

Implementation of the planned risk treatment, managing the process and fulfilling requirements.

Performance Evaluation (Clause 9)

The authority team must conduct periodic reviews of the ISMS to manage and review the process as it goes on.

Improvement (Clause 10)

Handling of nonconformities, implementing corrective actions and continual improvement of the ISMS over time.

Then Comes Annex A: A Reference Set of Information-Security Controls

The latest version comprises 93 controls across the four themes of organizational controls (37), people control (8), physical controls (14), and technological controls (34).

For a SaaS company, this may involve controls related to access management, encryption, secure coding practices, incident response, vendor management, backup and more.

Here’s What You Need to Get in Order When Looking into ISO 27001 Certification

Before you begin planning out the audit process, here are some components that your SaaS company should have sorted out beforehand. Not just on paper, but in practice.

A risk assessment methodology

You must develop an approach that enables you to identify and measure the information security risks within your business. Think about:

Unauthorized access
Lost or compromised credentials
Insider threats
Software vulnerabilities
Cloud infrastructure
Third-party vendors
Employee devices
Data leakage
Security incidents
Business disruption
Loss or corruption of information

A Statement of Applicability (SoA)

Ever heard of the infamous 93 Annex A controls? Assess which controls make sense for your risks, then document what applies, what doesn’t and why.

Cloud-specific security controls

Cloud environments require appropriate security controls based on your risks, such as configuration management, access controls, and data protection measures.

Access control and IAM evidence

Depending on your risks, your auditor may expect to see evidence of controls like MFA implementation, least privilege access reviews, role approval, and offboarding procedures.

Supplier and sub-processor management

You need to assess your suppliers, identify any inherited risks and maintain evidence of your assessment process, regardless of their own ISO 27001 certification or SOC 2.

Incident response and business continuity plans

Yes, these would need to be tested. Having a perfect incident response procedure that was never actually used in practice is not going to help in case of an emergency.

Your People Are Part of The Security

Your HR processes may need to address information-security responsibilities and employee life cycle processes. Management must be aware of its responsibilities. The employees should have adequate security awareness. Procurement might need to assess supplier risks. Engineering requires secure software development practices.

Then Comes the Audit

After implementation and functioning of the ISMS, you can proceed to certification to ISO 27001 by using a certification body.

This will involve evaluation of preparedness, auditing the organization’s ISMS and assessment of conformance to the standard. Certification organizations like BSI describe the journey as including preparation, optional gap analysis, certification auditing and ongoing improvement.

But certification does not mark the end.

ISMS is intended for continuous improvement. Meaning that you will have to keep monitoring, reviewing and improving your ISMS even after you have been certified.

But How Much Does ISO 27001 Certification Cost?

There isn’t one price for ISO 27001 certification. The cost changes based on how large your company is, how complex your information security management system is and other factors as well.

For example, let’s take a company with 20 to 100 employees.

The documentation audit review usually costs between $3,000 and $10,000.
The certification audit can range from $10,000 to $30,000.
The certification body fees are generally between $13,000 and $20,000.
Surveillance audits in the third-year cost about $5,000 to $18,000 each year.
The recertification audit in the fourth year is around $10,000 to $20,000.

Make ISO 27001 Simpler with SOCLY.io

Developing an ISMS from scratch while managing a SaaS organization is quite a task for an already busy team.

From understanding your current gaps and building the required controls to organizing evidence and preparing for the audit, SOCLY.io helps turn a complex certification process into a structured, manageable roadmap.

Your product team should be building the product. Let your ISO 27001 compliance process be something you can actually manage.

Ready to Make ISO 27001 Simpler? Get Your Custom Compliance Roadmap →

ISO 27001 for SaaS Companies: What It Takes to Become Certified

ISO 27001 for SaaS Companies: What It Takes to Become Certified

ISO 27001 for SaaS Companies: What It Takes to Become Certified

>ISO 27001 for SaaS Companies: What It Takes to Become Certified

ISO 27001 for SaaS Companies: What It Takes to Become Certified

ISO 27001 for SaaS Companies: What It Takes to Become Certified